…Hit With 9-Month Academy Transfer Ban
CHELSEA have been fined £10.75m, handed a suspended ban from signing first-team players and given an immediate nine-month academy transfer ban by the Premier League over breaches of financial rules during Roman Abramovich’s ownership.
The club, who still face potential sanctions from the Football Association over 74 charges of breaching agent regulations, were investigated by the league over undisclosed payments to agents, non-licensed intermediaries and other figures, including players, around signings between 2011 and 2018.
A source indicated that the FA’s investigation into Chelsea is also expected to conclude with the club receiving a fine and a suspended transfer ban, with the club’s decision to self-report the previous ownership’s activity anticipated to have a bearing on the level of the punishment.
Chelsea have received the biggest fine handed out by the Premier League but avoided a sporting sanction, such as a points deduction. The suspended first-team transfer ban lasts for two years and will be triggered if there are further breaches.
The league explained the settlement by pointing to “exceptional cooperation throughout the investigation” from Chelsea and noting that “significant mitigating factors” were at play.
The offences took place under the previous ownership and were self-reported by BlueCo, the investment vehicle that owns the club after the takeover from Abramovich in May 2022.
The illicit payments around the first team related to the signings of players such as Samuel Eto’o, Eden Hazard and Willian.
The first-team charges relate to incomplete financial reporting from 10 years ago but they would not have affected the club’s compliance with the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules.
The Premier League and the FA have been examining tens of millions of pounds in secret payments made by offshore companies that were owned by Abramovich. Details of the transactions were uncovered as part of Cyprus Confidential, an investigation by the Guardian and international media partners, based on a leak of data from Cypriot financial services firms that the Russian oligarch used to manage his vast fortunes.
Deals revealed by the leak included apparent off-book payments to Hazard’s agent and an associate of the title-winning manager Antonio Conte.
The FA’s ongoing investigation is understood to extend to Abramovich’s investment in “third-party ownership” of football players, details of which were also exposed by the Cyprus Confidential investigation.
The restriction around the academy applies to youth players previously registered with another Premier League or English Football League club’s academy, and not any current players, international players or players who are registering on professional terms.
The Premier League said it did not apply to players applying for their first registration. The academy charges relate to breaches of youth development rules between 2019 and 2022.
The fact that the first-team transfer ban is suspended means Chelsea may suffer limited consequences, if any, as a result of breaking the rules. The owners have a buffer against the cost of any sanctions imposed by the FA or Premier League, thanks to a “holdback” clause inserted in the takeover deal by the Clearlake consortium that bought Chelsea from Abramovich.
The clause allows Clearlake to withhold £150m of the total payment for five years, to cover the cost of “any proceeding in relation to events which took place before the acquisition date”. That means any financial penalty of less than £150m has in effect already been absorbed.
The league said: “As a result of the Premier League’s investigation, it was established that between 2011 and 2018, undisclosed payments by third parties associated with the club were made to players, unregistered agents and other third parties.
“These payments were not disclosed to the football regulatory authorities at the time, including the Premier League. The payments were made for the benefit of Chelsea FC and should have been treated as having been made by the club.
“The club has also accepted, among other things, that the making of these payments, as well as the failure to disclose them to the League, constituted a breach of the requirement to act in good faith towards the League.”
Chelsea said: “From the outset of this process, the club has treated these matters with the utmost seriousness, providing full cooperation to all relevant regulators.
“The club welcomes the recognition from the Premier League of its ‘exceptional cooperation’ and that ‘without those voluntary disclosures and the act of self-reporting, a number of the Premier League rule breaches may never have come to the attention of the league’.”
Chelsea were fined €10m in 2023 by Uefa after self-reporting historical transactions between 2012 and 2019. (The Guardian)
